LONG BEACH OPEN:Anatomy of the breakup

LONG BEACH — In life, when couples decide to “take a break,” the phrase is usually just a euphemism that masks the reality of a permanent split.

So when Costa Mesa resident Matt Fuerbringer and his volleyball partner of four years, Casey Jennings, split at the end of last season, it was seen as just that: a split.

It turned out to be a rather short break.

Fuerbringer, a product of Estancia High, went on to team with Sean Scott, and Jennings with Mark Williams. But neither of the new teams have had much success this year.

Fuerbringer and Scott had third-place finishes in Dallas and Tampa, but fell as low as 25th place in Huntington Beach. Jennings and Williams topped out with third-place finishes in Louisville and Charleston, S.C. Their lowest finish was 13th in Seaside Heights, N.J.

In a post dated Jan. 3, 2007, Fuerbringer wrote on his blog at mattfuerbringer.com:

Our growth had become stagnant and there were signs that we might both be better off with new partners. So here we are. It is January and for the first time in my beach volleyball career I will be practicing with someone other than Casey, and making goals for the future with someone else. Though it feels weird, it is also invigorating. It is an opportunity to take everything that I learned with Casey into a new partnership.

But after doing fairly well with Jennings — enough to finish fifth in the Best of the Beach event at Lake Tahoe last year — a 25th-place finish did not go down with ease. Thirteenth wasn’t much fun, either.

“We just felt like both of us had done really well, but both of us wanted to be the No. 1 team,” Fuerbringer said when asked what prompted the pair to split. “We hit a little bit of a wall, and we wanted to see if there was someone else out there who was going to get us over the hump a little bit more.”

This season, Jennings and Fuerbringer, who still were still communicating on a regular basis, found themselves in a familiar situation: they wanted to be teammates again.

The two got their wish, and are playing together again in the 11th event of the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals’ 16-tournament season.

They lost Saturday in three games to Canyon Ceman and Will Strickland, 17-21, 21-19, 15-13. Fuerbringer was momentarily fuming as the two retreated to their tent, knowing that it would mean a four-match trip through the losers’ bracket today just to get to the men’s semifinal.

But eventually, his mood brightened.

“We picked up right where we left off, I thought,” Fuerbringer said. “Our communication was even better. It’s pure appreciation for each other because you haven’t played with each other for awhile. You know, when you play with someone every day, there are things you start taking for granted that someone does for you. After a break, we really respect that and know what the other guy needs even more now.”

Fuerbringer and Jennings had dug themselves into a rut because of many problems, but one in particular, Fuerbringer said, was focusing too much on his blocking. Jennings was irritated when Fuerbringer was missing blocks, and Fuerbringer was irritated at Jennings for harping at him about it.

Such is the case when you spend as much or more time with your work partner than you do with your own family.

Jennings’ wife travels with him, but Fuerbringer has a bigger family, so they can’t be at every tournament, especially not overseas.

This time around, the two have just agreed to play their games, and look at the blocks as bonuses. Through five games in Long Beach, Fuerbringer leads in blocks with 12 for an average of 2.4 blocks per game.

“You’ve got to understand we played four years of our lives together, doing what we do for a living,” Fuerbringer said. “There’s nothing but respect and love because we did a lot for each other, and we had great success.

“But when you put a lot into it, you expect a lot. You put a lot on your friend and partner, and it just seemed like if we didn’t stop playing together for a little bit, we could start killing each other. It wasn’t building. Now, I think, we had to step away to build. Somehow we lost that match, I don’t know how, but I really feel we’re a better team now than we were, ever.”

SORAYA NADIA McDONALD may be reached at (714) 966-4613 or at soraya.mcdonald@latimes.com.